1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer software, and deals more particularly with techniques for managing user information in instant messaging systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Instant messaging systems are a popular communications mechanism for many people, and provide for instant, real-time communication between users who are connected to the system through an on-line or electronic networking environment such as the Internet, World Wide Web (hereinafter, “Web”), or corporate internal intranets. Examples of instant messaging systems include Yahoo!® Messenger, AOL Instant MessengerSM, and Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing. (“Yahoo!” is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. and “AOL Instant Messenger” is a service mark of America Online, Inc.)
Instant messaging systems provide real-time awareness of who is logged on. Typically, an instant messaging (hereinafter, “IM”) system user has an address book or “buddy list” containing names or nicknames for those people with whom he communicates. The entries in this address book are used for selecting a message recipient. In addition, the IM system (“IMS”) typically indicates, using a visual cue (such as different icons or different fonts), which of the people in the address book are logged on to the system and which are not. When the message sender and the target recipient are both currently logged on to an IMS (which may be the same IMS, or a different IMS), a message can be delivered and presented to the recipient nearly instantly (depending on network delay).
Instant messaging systems are often used for communicating among friends, and are also becoming integral business tools that enable team members or other business associates to communicate more efficiently and effectively (e.g., as they collaborate on a project).
An IMS user may also have user groups defined in his address book, where a user group comprises individual users (each of whom may also have a separate entry in the address book) and, optionally, other groups. Over time, as a user adds more and more people (or groups) to his address book, a situation arises where a number of these people/groups will not actually engage in IM sessions with the user in the near term (where “near term” may be defined in various ways, including this week, this month, this year, etc.). For example, a user “Joe” may have 300 entries in his IM address book, whereas he only engages in IM sessions on a weekly basis with 5 of these people.
In current IM systems, an IM server manages functions, such as “presence” detection, of the address book equivalently for all users. “Presence”, for an IMS, is the function whereby the IM display for a user such as Joe is dynamically updated to indicate which users from Joe's address book are currently online (and are therefore available for participating in an IM session). As can be imagined, as Joe's address book grows larger over time, the amount of system resources expended in performing management functions such as presence increases. The presence function, for example, is typically notified when a user's IM client comes online, and this presence function then notifies other IM users of the new client presence. When a user's IM client becomes inactive, enters a “do not disturb” state, or goes offline, it sends a message to the presence server, which in turn communicates that information to other IM users. In a situation such as the example described above, where Joe only interacts with 5 users but has 300 entries in his address book, a very unproductive use of resources results due to current IM servers managing functions (such as presence) of all these users. The overall efficiency of the IM server is seriously degraded when there are a number of users in this same situation.
One solution to this problem would be for Joe to simply delete users or groups from his address book, as he finds he does not interact with them frequently. However, if he subsequently wishes to engage in an IM session with a deleted user or group, he will need to manually re-enter their information into his address book. Re-entering information is time-consuming, and therefore most users do not find this approach acceptable.
Accordingly, what is needed are improvements to the management of user information in IM systems.